Assignment 2: Divergent Design ​

Broad Goals ​

Name

• RealTalk

Audience

• People who value correct information above most other things on the internet

Value

• RealTalk will prioritize battling the blatant misinformation found in nearly every area of the internet, especially on social media.

Brainstorm Features ​

User

• an independent person using RealTalk for some period of time

Session

• users can login, input information to be saved between sessions and access personal information, and logout

Posting

• users can share a snippet of text to other users, either privately or publicy

Tags

• users can add tags to things they post, allowing other users to see those kinds of posts more easily

Likes/Dislikes

• users can apply a like or dislike to any post they see

Trust/Mistrust

• users can apply a "trust" or "mistrust" to any post they see, which shows whether the user believes the post to be true

Commenting

• users can reply to posts with comments

Block

• users can block other users, preventing them from interacting or otherwise seeing them on the app

Search

• users can search for other users or keywords in posts

Notifications

• users can receieve notifications for important events that happen in-app

Account Update Notifications

• users can receive notification if another user's account is updated in some way, i.e. posts, comments, likes

Profile

• users can create a profile with information about then, such as a username, biography, and preferred pronouns

Following/Unfollowing

• users can follow another user to see their posts more easily

Private Messaging

• users can send other users messages only visible to the two of them

Attach Media

• users can attach media to posts, comments, and private messages

Ping

• users can "ping" other users, notifying the other user to see where and why they were pinged

Share

• users can share posts through copying the url of a post or by sending them private messages

VSD Analysis ​

Stakeholders ​

Consider Children

• Due to the anti-misinformation tactics employed by the app, it should be safer for children than other social media apps. However, to combat this even further, the algorithm that decides which posts a user will see can put a higher priority on correct information and a different priority distribution on tags depending on the age of the user.

Time ​

Appropration by Cultural Groups

• There are multiple religious groups that share false or unproven information to convince others to join their group. Some sects of Christianity do this; for example, they might say there is historical evidence that proves the content of a specific Bible verse in one of their posts. In this case that this is not true, there would be information about the untruthfulness attached to the post. The sect might see this as a form of prosecution and react negatively to this.

Adaptation

• Users may simply trust any post that they like and mistrust any post they dislike while using RealTalk. This is unfortunately the opposite of the wanted effect, but could potentially happen. This could be reduced by separating where the buttons are located on a post so users psychologically associate them with different areas, and thus don't associate them with each other as strongly.

Long-Term Health and Well-Being

• After interacting with RealTalk daily for a long period of time, users might
  • be able to identify misinformation that follows common patterns. This would be due to the consistent reinforcement of thinking of the truthfulness of information after reading it, which leads to a positive effect.
  • be able to fact-check pieces of information before they share to other people if there is a high likelihood that it could be false. This would cause slower and less sharing of information on average, but increased truthfulness in the information they share which is an overall positive effect.
  • insist upon the truthfulness of any information they receive above all other things. This could potentially damage their relationships with others depending on how they insist, and could have a positive or negative effect.

Pervasiveness ​

Political Realities

• Democratic
  • In a democratic country, voting is a very important aspect of life. The like/dislike and trust/mistrust features follow this philosophy, but the current votes are not shown. To improve this, the ratios or exact numbers should be shown to the users to allow them to see what others think. This also reflects how voting works in real life; the results can be seen during the voting process in some cases.
• Totalitarian
  • Due to the large amount of control the government wants to have over its citizens in a totalitarian government, RealTalk will likely be restrictied or outright banned. Totalitarian governments restrict the truth from the outside world and impose their own "truth", which often contradicts the actual truth.

Values ​

User Experience of Values

• The trust/mistrust buttons of RealTalk are completely aligned with the main value that the platform stands for. Just the presence of them will influence some users into thinking more critically about the information they read, causing their values to shift to promote truthfulness.

Concepts ​

User

• An individual who uses RealTalk for some amount of time
• A person who opens RealTalk becomes a user, and stops being a user once they close the app

Session

• Allows users to login, logout, and save and access user-specific information and functions between login and logout
• A user can login to their session, make a post, comment on two other posts, and logout

Post

• Allows users to share information with others
• A user can share the text "Delicious dinner!" with an image of lasagna that they made

Tag

• Allows users to add tags to posts to allow easier filtering from other concepts
• A user can add the tags "food", "dinner", and "lasagna" to the post above

Like/Dislike

• Allows users to express their interest or disinterest in a post, or show their enjoyment or displeasure
• A user who enjoys eating lasagna can like the post above, and another user who is allergic to tomatoes can dislike the post above

Trust/Mistrust

• Allows users to express whether they believe the information in the post is factual
• A user who shared the lasagna with the original poster of the above post can trust the post knowing that the lasagna was made and eaten for dinner

Commenting

• Allows users to express opinions, ask questions, or otherwise interact with a post where likes/dislikes and trust/mistrusts are not sufficient
• A user can comment a statement on the post above such as "Wow! That looks amazing", and another user can comment a question on the post above such as "What recipe did you use?"

Profile

• Allows users to mentally separate other users using unique features, such as a profile picture and username, and for users to set personal settings, such as a password, security, and UI theme
• A user can create and decorate their profile with their real name and a picture of them taken yesterday so others can find them more easily

Following/Unfollowing

• Allows users to keep closer contact with another user, facilitating information sharing
• A user can follow another user to ensure they see a majority of what the other user posts and potentially to private message them depending on profile settings

Private Messaging

• Allows users to directly message other users in a private chat where no other users can see
• A user can PM another user to ask a personal question about their recent vacation photos without involving others

Attach Media

• Allows users to link media, such as images or videos, to any text inputted
• A user can attach an image of their dog to a PM message to another user, or attach a video of them surfing in a comment on a post about surfing

Karma

• Each user has a score associated with their account, which changes depending on the type of content they post
• A user who posts a lot of true content will have a high positive karma score, a user who posts a few true posts will have a low positive karma score, and a user who posts a lot of false content will have a high negative karma score

Dependency Diagram ​

Solid arrow lines represent the head depending on the tail, dashed arrow lines represent the head depending on at least one of the tails of any other dashed arrow line attached to the same head

UI Sketches ​